10 Games In - Your Verdict

[Bluetintedspecs]

Not great obviously,  however the horrific defensive injuries and defensive cover, monster that is Wilf have had a significant impact.

 

Wilf back , revert to flat back 4 and width ,pushing us further forward with a higher press will make us a much better proposition imo.

 

We will improve as season goes on I feel. COYB

[justfoxes]

Not the best start been unlucky with a few injuries to key players , but it’s only 10 games in I’m sure Brendan will get us back to better performances shows we need a couple of decent defenders in January if we could get a younger Johnny Evans type player we’d be fine!

 

But Now isn’t the time to start hitting the panic button if we start getting our Sh it together pull our performances together we’ll be climbing that table, string a few wins together in both Premier League & Europe get our players confidence on the up, maybe  the time to start worrying would be late Dec mid January if we’re still playing awful football then thats the time to worry !

I think we’ll be fine get our injured lads back maybe Top will Sanction a couple of incoming players in January can see us 

Finish around Top 6 getting Top 4 would be great but think we may get beaten to those after our dreadful start and the likes of West Ham flying doing a Leicester as heard a pundit say the other day !

 

[Crazy Kop Corner]

I came away from the Villarreal game thinking the injury to Fofana could be pivotal and unfortunately it has been. 

 

We were purring for the first 60 minutes in that game and it feels to me as though we've been knocked off course ever since. 

 

I'm just hoping we can stay in their into January get one or two new signings and get the first 11 out for the remainder of the season and come with a late charge 

[SecretPro]

I think Premier League wise, the season is pretty much over. I expect us to finish mid table. I think we knew this the moment Lil Wes snapped his leg.

 

I suspect when Wes and Justin are both back properly and up and running we will see a massive upturn in form, but it will be too late to achieve European football.

 

We won;t go any further in League Cup, don't think we will do much in FA Cup, so I think our main focus should now be the Europa. Hopefully with players back we can make a proper go of it after Christmas.

 

Inevitably, without European football next year then Youri, Ricky and a few others are likely to be off. We will face a re-building job. Could go either way.

 

All of this because some cu*t snaps Lil Wes leg and didn't even get a booking. Infuriating.

[Jattdogg]

Basically,  mediocre at best...6/10

 

 Agree with a lot of previous comments. 

 

If we get back to our old selves , skys the limit with this squad ( minus vestergaard).

 

We have so much potential and need to tap into it.  Getting justin and fofana back would be huge.

[Guest Col city fan]

1 hour ago, SecretPro said:

I think Premier League wise, the season is pretty much over. I expect us to finish mid table. I think we knew this the moment Lil Wes snapped his leg.

 

I suspect when Wes and Justin are both back properly and up and running we will see a massive upturn in form, but it will be too late to achieve European football.

 

We won;t go any further in League Cup, don't think we will do much in FA Cup, so I think our main focus should now be the Europa. Hopefully with players back we can make a proper go of it after Christmas.

 

Inevitably, without European football next year then Youri, Ricky and a few others are likely to be off. We will face a re-building job. Could go either way.

 

All of this because some cu*t snaps Lil Wes leg and didn't even get a booking. Infuriating.

Your last sentence sums it up

Due to some ridiculous, reckless challenge in a fookin pre season friendly, our whole season will likely suffer

In any other walk of life, this would be termed ‘GBH’. In football it’s ‘an unfortunate challenge’

The implications of are incredible really. A CB pairing of Evans and Fofana compared to the others we have at our disposal now… unfortunate’ don’t quite cut it 

[ScrumpyJack]

2 hours ago, hackneyfox said:

ffs

Listen yeah I won the Champions League with Rushden & Diamonds on CM02, I know my stuff.

[FoxOnWheels]

D for the players we’ve got and the budget we had regardless of injuries we’ve under performed massively so far and have gone backwards

[Foxaholic ME]

3 hours ago, FoxOnWheels said:

D for the players we’ve got and the budget we had regardless of injuries we’ve under performed massively so far and have gone backwards

The fact is we have less points than Spurs  whose expectations are similar  and they have sacked the manager  although  I  consider it ridiculouslly early in the season

[FoxOnWheels]

1 minute ago, Foxaholic ME said:

The fact is we have less points than Spurs  whose expectations are similar  and they have sacked the manager  although  I  consider it ridiculouslly early in the season

I’ve just seen the thread about are points total and WDL since last Feb and it is quite worrying, wouldn’t sack Rodgers yet and hopefully we don’t have to but it’s been a longer period than it looks

[Foxaholic ME]

On 01/11/2021 at 16:22, SecretPro said:

I think Premier League wise, the season is pretty much over. I expect us to finish mid table. I think we knew this the moment Lil Wes snapped his leg.

 

I suspect when Wes and Justin are both back properly and up and running we will see a massive upturn in form, but it will be too late to achieve European football.

 

We won;t go any further in League Cup, don't think we will do much in FA Cup, so I think our main focus should now be the Europa. Hopefully with players back we can make a proper go of it after Christmas.

 

Inevitably, without European football next year then Youri, Ricky and a few others are likely to be off. We will face a re-building job. Could go either way.

 

All of this because some cu*t snaps Lil Wes leg and didn't even get a booking. Infuriating.

There seems to be an assumption that when players come back they will be as good as before  but this is not the case  and apart from possiblly Castagne   everybody with  a longish lay off  has not been as good as before  

[sacreblueits442]

21 minutes ago, Foxaholic ME said:

There seems to be an assumption that when players come back they will be as good as before  but this is not the case  and apart from possiblly Castagne   everybody with  a longish lay off  has not been as good as before  

....I feel they are pretty much back to themselves, it is just the disjointed teams and setups that has meant we are not all singing from the same hymn sheet!!!

Unsettled teams with players occupying roles they did not sign up for, has left us with an uncoordinated side that continues to lurch along in the league. I have little worries about the players who have come back from injuries, we just need to settle down into a familiar pattern of play and build from there.

[Vardinio'sCat]

[Tom12345]

Verdict 10 games in: We will not be able to hang on to Tielemans. Hope is already gone for CL football next season so he will leave.

 

On the bright side, Rodgers have been trying new players and new things that have often got me pretty frustrated last season. So once we can sort out our defensive woes (perhaps we just need to pray Evans stays fit and hope Fofana returns sooner), we will hopefully be chasing for 5th at some stage later in the season. In this regard, our season was done by Villarreal in the pre-season - we should sue them.

Edited 3 November 2021 by Tom12345

[Dan LCFC]

More negatives than positives for me. Defence is as bad as it's been since we've come up with the exception of possibly 2016/17, although I think the attacking was the problem more so than anything there.

 

The main positives are we have now got one of the best sets of forwards in the league - possibly even Europe. Vardy's still likely to get 15+ again even at 35/36. Iheanacho's been a borderline elite level forward in 2021 and Daka looks like he could actually be as good as Vardy one day based on a pretty small sample size, but I suppose if you look at his career he's quite obviously a bit special. His Salzburg numbers are comparable to Haaland. His upside is enormous. I think Soumare looks a talent as well, has struggled at times but he's shown glimpses of being a real quality player. Tielemans is a tricky one - he hasn't been quite as good as last season but I've always said about him that he's largely influenced by what's around him, and we're a bit disfunctional in general so it's likely to bring him down. He's also despite this produced some real class on occasion. I suppose the other positives you could say are that we're probably going to get through our group now, albeit probably in 2nd (which this year makes it notably harder than finishing 1st) and we're still not actually that far off the top four points wise.

 

However I don't really have much else positive to say. Whilst we aren't far off points wise, I've seen virtually nothing in our performances to suggest that we're going to close the gap rather than allow it to grow. There was a moment a week or two ago where I thought a corner had possibly been turned, but in truth, I think our upturn was as much down to the errors of the opposition than anything spectacular we did. Manchester United have been even more disfunctional than us, albeit with probably the easiest fixture list in the league so far and better players (hence them still being as high as 5th) but they were a mess against us and what Liverpool did to them highlighted some serious flaws. Spartak Moscow, we stuck 4 past them but only 4 days later Zenit stuck 7 past them. Even Brentford have been quite soundly beaten since we won there. It's too simplistic to say "A beats B, B beats C so A must be far better than C" but I don't think it reflects too well on us. That Arsenal game was a real acid test and we failed it quite badly for me. Another shambolic defensive display giving ourselves too much to do again.

 

I've thought it quietly since the Fofana injury but I expect little from this season. I don't expect us to finish above 9th in the league and I don't expect us to go far in Europe either and I've seen absolutely nothing to change my mind, if anything I'm even more confident - possibly a cup run domestically but I have my doubts. It just feels a bit Puel to me, albeit with the defence being a shambles rather than the attack. I know we've had defensive injuries so we were likely to struggle there, but I don't think it's as simple as that and even despite who we've had out, we shouldn't be letting in 2 a game. Evans' return hasn't exactly seen an upturn in our form like some predicted, and I think our problems are more structural than individual because you cannot point to many players who are in good form at the minute.

 

I also think we've now become a side that gets loads of injuries, Arsenal under Wenger esque. I'm not talking about freak injuries like Fofana and Justin, but just week to week we so often seem to be missing somebody. I feel it's gone beyond the point of bad luck now and that it's something we're doing wrong somewhere.

 

What's a bit bleak to me is that we look a poorer team than two years ago with probably a better squad.

[jerry]

On 01/11/2021 at 16:22, SecretPro said:

I think Premier League wise, the season is pretty much over. I expect us to finish mid table. I think we knew this the moment Lil Wes snapped his leg.

 

I suspect when Wes and Justin are both back properly and up and running we will see a massive upturn in form, but it will be too late to achieve European football.

 

We won;t go any further in League Cup, don't think we will do much in FA Cup, so I think our main focus should now be the Europa. Hopefully with players back we can make a proper go of it after Christmas.

 

Inevitably, without European football next year then Youri, Ricky and a few others are likely to be off. We will face a re-building job. Could go either way.

 

All of this because some cu*t snaps Lil Wes leg and didn't even get a booking. Infuriating.

Oh dear thought I was pessimistic ! Trouble is I think you are probably right.

[ARM1968]

Meh. Obvious problems but nothing done to address them. Injuries yes, out of form players yes, but everyone has to deal with that. Too slow, too weak, too disorganised. 
 

Other than that, cracking really. Mind you I dreamt we lost 4-7 tonight so let’s hope it was just a nightmare eh. 

[OntarioFox]

Feels like a fallow year at this point in honesty. We're still kicking around with the Europa positions well within reach, but I'd be pretty happy with any top half finish as realistically I expect at least West Ham and Arsenal to finish above us now.

 

Defense is pants, but we have three class strikers in good form so that's a big plus.

 

Gotta make cups and Europa a priority at this point I think. We're nowhere even close to one of the three worst teams in the league, but neither do I expect us to finish far above where we are now in the table.

 

Will make summer an interesting one. We all know Tielemans will probably be off, the challenge will be holding onto Ndidi (and possibly Evans).

[Guest Col city fan]

😂😂😂😂😂

[Lako42]

The atmosphere is dead

 

 

Hhe football is boring

 

Real questions need asking of a very well paid manager 

[jayfox26]

Like most have said, the amount of goals we are conceding is concerning but its the manner we are conceding which really worries me. Other than the Greenwood wonder goal, I can't think of too many goals where you can hold your hand up and say fair enough  that's a class goal. Most goals we concede are pathetic and incredibly easy. Set pieces or crosses like the Spartak goal and you just think what the **** are we doing? What are we doing in training and why are we not trying to rectify these massive issues. Yes we miss Fofana and Justin but our defenders are not bad players (except possibly Bertrand and Vestergaard) and alot of goals we concede are often down to poor decision making or poor concentration. If we concede 3 goals in a game and they are all wonder goals or the opposition creates some amazing play to score then fair enough but that's not the case and 99% of our conceded goals this season were easily preventable but for stupid mistakes/loss of concentration. We are very frustrating to watch right now and its because we are all aware of what Brendan and these players are capable of yet we seem a million miles off the level we know we can play at. At this point it wouldn't surprise me if the "big 6", west ham, Everton, wolves, Palace and Brighton all finished above us this season.  We have the potential to finish top 4 but also could easily finish anywhere down to 14th/15th. As I said previously, could almost forgive the league form a bit if we were smashing Europe like we did in our champs league season but every game is a drag right now and not massively enjoyable.